Dec 11, 2015

People Cut Off Social Security Disability Benefits In England Didn't Return To Work

Background
Many governments have introduced tougher eligibility assessments for
out-of-work disability benefits, to reduce rising benefit
caseloads. The UK government
initiated a programme in 2010 to reassess all existing disability
benefit claimants using a new
functional checklist. We
investigated whether this policy led to more people out-of-work with
long-standing health problems
entering employment.

Method We
use longitudinal data from the Labour Force Survey linked to data
indicating the proportion of the population experiencing
a reassessment in each of 149 upper
tier local authorities in England between 2010 and 2013. Regression
models were used to
investigate whether the proportion
of the population undergoing reassessment in each area was independently
associated with
the chances that people out-of-work
with a long-standing health problem entered employment and transitions
between inactivity
and unemployment. We analysed
whether any effects differed between people whose main health problem
was mental rather than
physical.

Results
There was no significant association between the reassessment process
and the chances that people out-of-work with a long-standing
illness entered employment. ...